The Black Bean
by silentmusic16
Summary: Roxas, Namine, a coffee shop called "The Black Bean" and jazz music. What more could there be? An au oneshot. Completed.


**I was really, really influenced today by a few things (I'm going to list them in the ending author's note) and lead to me writing this. To Idoenjoyanime and Kingdomheartsgirl101, this isn't the oneshot I told you I was writing. I went through a whole lot of oneshots and story ideas that I couldn't write a good ending to and things like that before finally writing this. it took me maybe 2 and a half hours total and i did it all today. so i'll get to reading your stories soon!**

**I hope you guys enjoy! I really worked hard on this!  
**

* * *

Sitting in a coffee shop at night has been something I've done since I was 16, when I first got my license. And 7 years later, I still do it whenever I have the chance. Something about the ambiance of steaming black coffee, calming jazz music, and relaxing, homey décor just put me in a tranquil, serene mood. And I'm not talking about one of those franchise coffee shops like Starbucks either. I'm talking about the real thing; a nice little place in my home town that is neither a franchise nor a commercial place. It's just a little store that appeared one day that had its own vibes, its own soul.

Now most of my visits to the coffee shop, aptly named The Black Bean, were unremarkable and indistinguishable from each other. I'd get there around 8 with whatever book I'm reading at the time and find my usually comfy armchair near the back of the store. After setting my book down to claim my seat, I'd go up to the counter and commence in some small talk with the only waitress there, a tallish, blue haired girl named Aqua. She was a couple of years older than me, but since I'd gone to The Black Bean so much, she and I became pretty close friends. I had even hung out with her on her days off a few times. So after I chatted and ordered my coffee (black, with a teaspoon of sugar), I sat back down in my chair and read for an hour or so, enjoying my drink at the same time. The black liquid could be pretty hot at first, but after a minute or so, it cools down enough to drink.

Some days, if I was really tired from work, or too worked up and irritated by my classes, I'd close my eyes and listen to the peaceful jazz that was constantly playing in the background. I'd developed a love of the music after only a few visits. For some reason, jazz really went well with coffee.

On one particular day, though, my usual trip to the little corner coffee joint was anything but usual. It had been raining all day and showed no sign of stopping. In fact, it got _worse_ at some points, bringing about shouts of thunder and flashes of lighting. That day I pulled up to the curb as close as I could get to the store and parked, hoping that I wouldn't get too wet as I ran from my car to the building. Fortunately I got into the store right before the next bout of thunder began outside and the rain fell harder.

I felt an unfamiliar absence in my hand as I started walking to my usual armchair and realized that I didn't have my book with me; I hadn't taken it to either class or work that day, and I figured that I left it in my apartment. As I was thinking, I barely registered a girl passing my standing form. My eyes only caught a glimpse of blonde hair before they went back to staring at nothing in particular. Sighing, I just realized that all I would do was have my coffee and leave earlier than usual that day.

I walked up to the cash register with a small smile on my face and rang the bell that was there to alert the waitress. Aqua heard and looked up from her own book, which she was reading on rolling chair behind the counter. She smiled as she got up and walked up to me.

"Hey Roxas." She greeted in a friendly tone, "How was work today?"

"Fine." I answered. "What about you? How has your day gone?"

"Perfect." She giggled. Secretly, I've always been jealous of her, at least for her job. All she did was open the store in the morning, take a few orders during the day (there were never more than 5 or 6 customers in the store at one time, and they were all the type who were pros at being quiet and reading, or at least not bothering anyone), and she got to sit and read and listen to jazz all day long. At night she closed up the store and went home. Such a wonderful job….

"Just give me the usual, as usual." I gave a little smirk and she laughed again.

"Got it."

I stood by the counter and patiently waited for my coffee to be finished. After a minute or so, Aqua came back with my drink and I paid, as always giving her a generous tip.

Cup in hand I walked over to my chair and almost dropped my coffee in surprise. Sitting in the armchair was a girl my age and I recognized her as someone who was in one of my classes, though I didn't know her name. She had on a pair of reading glasses and a large book was in her lap. Her legs were crossed and neither one dangled off the edge of the seat. When she felt my presence, she glanced up from her book, her blue eyes peering over her glasses.

"Hello." She welcomed

"Hi. Uh…sorry for staring. I'm just used to having that seat and it was a surprise to see someone else actually sitting there is all."

"Oh." She frowned a bit, but still asked sincerely "Would you like me to move?"

"Nah, it's fine. I forgot to bring my book anyway, so I'm not going to be here long tonight."

"Thanks." She smiled and went back to her novel.

A few minutes passed and I was sitting in the armchair next to hers, enjoying my coffee while listening to the music around me. The atmosphere in the store was great, as usual, and I savored it, almost tasting it in the air around surrounding me.

"Um…" I heard the girl next to me speak. I turned toward her and waited for her to finish. "You look familiar. Do I know you?"

"I was going to ask the same thing. I think you're in one of my classes. You go to Twilight Town University, right?"

"Yeah! You wouldn't happen to be in my English period, would you? It's 3rd period with Professor Eraqus."

"That's my English period as well, so I guess that's the class we share."

"I'm Namine Grey." She held out her hand.

"Roxas Temura." I shook hands with her and I was pleasantly surprised to see that she had a confident grip. Her hand was soft and smooth.

"So do you come here often?"

"Yeah, I've been coming here for years, actually. It has such a nice atmosphere."

Namine put a bookmark in her novel and closed it.

"Is that so? I only heard about this place last week. I think our professor mentioned it in passing once."

"I wouldn't be surprised. I've actually seen him in here a few times since the semester started."

"Really?" she was leaning forward in her seat, as if my story was really that interesting. I didn't think it was anyway.

"Yeah. It was kind of awkward, actually, because he was grading papers the two times I met him in here. He hid them when he saw me, like I was going to steal them or something."

"That's not too hard to imagine." She laughed, a light, airy sound. "He does seem like the overly-paranoid type, at least when it comes to class."

"I thought that too." I gave her a pleasant grin.

All talking stopped off there, for some reason, and yet we kept staring at one another. She was wearing a blue and white checkered fleece button down with slim blue jeans. The jeans weren't too skinny, but it didn't look like they offered much in empty space. I was wearing a black cotton button down over dark blue jeans.

"Ahem." We heard Aqua cough not too far away at the cash register; there was a knowing smirk on her lips.

"S-so do you live close to here?" Namine asked, trying to cut through the awkwardness in the air.

"I have an apartment not too far from here, just a few blocks away. Do you live close?"

"I still live in the dorms, but only because I don't have enough money to rent an apartment yet. I need to get one soon, though, because my roommate Larxene can be a real sadistic bitch sometimes."

There was an anger in her eyes that appeared when she talked about Larxene and the anger didn't seem natural coming from Namine. She seemed like the type who was tolerant to most people she didn't like and just ignored the people she _really_ didn't like. The anger actually scared me a bit. But as soon as it appeared it disappeared and only a melancholy look was remained.

"I hope I'm not being too weird by saying this, we did just meet anyway, but you're welcome to stay at my place for a few nights if you'd like to get away from your roommate. I promise I won't try anything with you."

"Hmm…."

She sat there for a long time considering it, staring into space while she was thinking. I took a few sips of my coffee, now a lukewarm liquid, and stared as she decided what she was going to do. In the corner of my eye I saw Aqua staring at us intently; she could definitely hear our conversation from the counter and it looked like she was waiting to see how the rest of the night would play out between Namine and I.

"Eh, why not? It can't hurt, right?" she gave me a smile and finished the rest of her coffee before standing up, her book neatly held under one arm. I drank what was left of my own coffee and stood up as well.

"Do you need to get a change of clothes or anything?" I asked as we walked out of the store. Before we left I waved good-bye to Aqua. She just put that knowing smile back on her face. It almost seemed like she knew that _something_ was going to happen between us. Looking back on it, she probably did, most likely from her own personal experiences.

"Yeah." She frowned. "I don't want to take advantage of your kindness, but would you mind driving me? I took a bus here and the next one doesn't come for at least another hour."

"Not a problem." I opened up the door for her and closed it as she got in. When I sat in the driver's side, I popped in a jazz cd I had bought a few years before. It played the same slow-paced, low-key jazz that I had grown to love from The Black Bean.

The ride to her dorm was a quiet one, with only the music making filling the silence.

"It'll only take a minute." She said as she ran out of the car and into her dorm room. I sat in the car and closed my eyes as I waited for her, letting the music fill my soul and set my mood.

When she returned she looked visibly angry and she slammed the door after she sat down. She took her backpack, which was packed with clothes I assumed, and through it into the back seat of the car.

"Was there a problem?" I asked.

"No, it's just…it's just that Larxene tried starting with me again as I was packing. She was hitting my clothes out of my hand and at one point she even poured out my backpack and I had to refold and repack everything. And all the while she was insulting me for no reason! It's like she has nothing better to do!" Namine finished her rant and took deep breaths to calm herself down. I'm guessing the music helped too, as it only took her a few minutes.

"Do you know why she acts like that?"

"No! It's almost if she just needs _someone_ to torment and I'm the closest person to her at the moment."

"Well rest assured that I'm definitely _not_ going to harass you or anything."

She gave me a nice, sincere smile. "Thanks."

That was the extent of our conversation until we made it to my apartment. I took her to the 13th floor and showed her which one was my room. Coincidentally, it was room 13.

She put her bag on the floor near the door as we entered my apartment. I closed the door behind us and led her in, taking her to my little table in my kitchen and dining area where I started telling her about the apartment.

"I was lucky enough to get an apartment with two rooms, and I never use the guest room, so you can stay there for now. My room is right across from the guest room, so if you need any help, just knock on my door. The bathroom is a bit down the hall." I walked her there to show her. "And it's kind of small, but at least there's a shower and a tub. And it's close to our rooms, so if you wake up in the middle of the night and need to go, you're not going to be wandering around lost or anything." I then took her to the living room. "And here's the living room. So that's really it. Any questions?"

"Nope." She smiled. "This is really nice and I _really_ appreciate it. Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?"

"Not really." I laughed, "I've got everything under control."

That first time she stayed at my house lasted a week, in which we got to know each other. We started going to The Black Bean every day together, though she let me have my seat back and she took the one next to it. At the end of that week, I knew I'd made a great friend.

The week after she stayed at my place she went back to her dorm, where she was met with even worse abuse by her dorm mate than before. She told me about it every day as we met at the coffee shop. I finally got the courage to ask her to just stay live with me instead of going back to live with Larxene. She accepted without hesitation and the next day I helped her move all of her stuff out of her dorm and into _our_ apartment. The only thing I asked of her was to pay half the rent, which she did without a problem.

When Aqua learned about Namine moving in with me a month after it happened, that smirk she had on the day Namine and I met returned. Not that it had ever left; she smiled like that every time she saw Namine and me together.

"You two are definitely in love." She stated matter-of-factly.

"W-w-what?" I stammered nervously. "Can't a man and a woman be platonic best friends who rent an apartment together?"

"Nope." She popped the "p" sound at the end of the word.

Sometime later, about six months after Namine moved in with me, we started dating. Not much changed; we still went to The Black Bean and we still lived together, though now we were kissing and cuddling instead of awkwardly stealing glances at one another.

And a year later we were still living together, still dating, and still going to The Black Bean nearly every night. But we were in love.

A few days after our one year anniversary, Aqua stopped me for a second. I told Namine that I was coming, and to wait in the car and out of the rain for me. After she left, Aqua smirked like she had that first day, though there was a smugness to it this time.

"I told you so!" she sang.

"What?"

"I told you that you two were in love. And I was right. If you weren't, you wouldn't still be together right now."

"Okay….So was that all you stopped me for?" I asked.

"No, although that was a big part of it."

"So what was the other part?"

Her eyes lit up. "My dad was the owner of this place, and he just retired. He handed it down to me….and there's a job opening now that I'm the owner…."

"No way. Are you saying that…." My eyes grew wide and I was too stunned to finish my sentence.

"You start on Monday, 6:00 am sharp. I had no other choice but to give the opening to my favorite, most loyal customer." She had a sincere, lovely smile on her face.

"Thank you!" I gave her a big hug and ran out of the store.

"Nami! Guess what?" I panted as I reached her waiting near my car.

"What?"

"Aqua just gave me a job at The Black Bean!"

She looked at me in wonder. "Really?"  
"Yes!"

I pulled her close and gave her a long, deep kiss. A light rain sprinkled from the nighttime cloud cover and soft jazz music floated out of my car speakers and into the air.

* * *

**So...how was it? good? bad? ugly? please review and tell me what you think!  
**

**as for my influences? play all of these things I will list at the same time and you'll hopefully see what I was thinking as I wrote this:  
**

**1. go to rainymood. com**

**2. ww w . com/watch?v =HMnrl0tmd3k**

**3. ww w . com/watch?v =DIx3aMRDUL4**

**obviously type/copy and paste those _without_ the spaces and open them in different tabs and listen to them all at the same time. I swear I've been listening to this loop for _hours, _even before I wrote this oneshot!**

**Peace!  
**


End file.
